Resurrection Thinking

Moon Walk

A U.S. astronaut walks on the Moon.

Resurrection faith begins with a renewed way of thinking. Before you can be raised to a new level of life, you have to die to old ways of thinking. You have to have new life pictures! This means releasing past assumptions, feelings, and practices.

Resurrection thinking affects every area of our lives. From our relationships to the way we think about the stewardship of time and financial resources, we must die to old patterns of thinking and be raised to the new. What is the new reality? Things that are impossible for human beings are possible for God. Ask yourself: “What can God do through me if I am willing to risk acting on the mustard seed faith that I have?” The impossible is the new possible!

People who defy conventional wisdom are often the ones who contribute the most to human advancement. Some of the best scientific minds of the fifteenth century were convinced the earth was flat. As a result, folks thought Christopher Columbus was crazy! Do you think that when Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492, he knew for an absolute fact the earth was round? Surely he doubted. But Columbus didn’t allow those doubts to override his conviction to act on the “things not yet seen.” With the example of Columbus in mind, I recommend taking some time to reflect on the meaning of faith as described in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (11:1).

In the 1950s, scientists were still debating the possibility of moon travel. Then the Russians launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a joint session of Congress the ambitious goal of landing an American on the moon by the end of the decade. Crazy? Impossible? Unrealistic? The American spacecraft Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the moon on July 20, 1969.

People believed it was impossible for the human body to break the threshold of four minutes in running one mile—that is, until Roger Bannister did it in 1954 with a time of 3:59.4. The barrier that had stood for centuries is now broken regularly. What was considered undoable is now doable! For the impossible to become possible, you must believe it is possible; you must believe it before you can achieve it. To be raised to a new way of living, you have to die to an old way of thinking.

I came to Ginghamsburg Church in 1979 when it was just a little chapel built in 1876, in a village of twenty-two houses with fewer than one hundred people in the congregation. The Miami Valley region of Ohio, where the church is located, has declined in population during my almost four decades of ministry here. Human reasoning would have indicated that it was impossible to grow a successful church here. But Ginghamsburg Church has helped thousands throughout the area. It has partnered with local government agencies to build low-income housing in at-risk neighborhoods in the city of Dayton, as well as 277 schools in the Darfur region of the Sudan involving nearly 35,000 students.

I have often shared the story about taking a whole day when I arrived in 1979 to dream God’s dream for Ginghamsburg. Such times of visioning are absolutely essential for fertilizing the mustard seeds of Resurrection faith. I remember sharing the vision that God had given me with my supervisor (district superintendent). I told him I could see the day when three thousand people would worship at Ginghamsburg. The church would demonstrate racial and economic diversity. Our mission would be to grow disciples of Jesus who would demonstrate the kingdom of God on earth. Needless to say, my district superintendent thought I was crazy, even though he used the nicer term “naïve.” He reminded me that up to that time there had never been a United Methodist Church in Ohio that had been larger than twelve hundred in worship attendance. To be raised to a new way of living, you have to die to an old way of thinking. For the impossible to become possible, you have to believe it is possible!

The Rev. Mike Slaughter is senior pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio. This post was excerpted with permission from his book RENEGADE GOSPEL: The Rebel Jesus.